Since I’ve started writing this blog, I’ve heard so many discussions and read so many posts about the French look that I decided to write my monthly guest post on the subject for My French Life, the Australian-based online magazine & global community of French & francophiles.
How to Look French
They learn when they’re very young of course. Even our bi-cultural children, strongly influenced in their early years by our ‘foreign’ tastes in matters of clothing and comportment, turn out looking French in the end!
I can still remember being on a secluded beach one day in Australia with my 20-year old daughter, born and bred in France. She had just spent six months studying at the University of Queensland. A long way off, we could see a group of three people.
“They’re French,” she said.
“How do you know?”
“I can just tell.”
And when they came closer, her guess proved right of course. Two of them were French.
Dear Fraussie
Very interesting how it’s possible to guess that one person is French and another American. Although there are so many differences between individual French people. Dining in cafes and restaurants in Paris recently have seen so many French women who don’t follow “the rules”: older women in subdued colours who are letting their hair go naturally grey; women “of a certain age” who are wearing bright colours and chunky jewellery. The all looked good. Can understand that some expat women who live here might want to try and look French, but I think this is rather a shame. As adult women we should all have our own sense of who we are as individuals and how we wish to dress and it’s important for our peace of mind and self worth to try to feel happy in our own skin. As something of a free spirit I’ve never been one for following “rules”. At the same time, I’d never wander the streets of Paris dressed in shorts or track pants. Some clothes are just not acceptable away from home, a sports area or beach whether one lives in Paris, Sydney or Singapore.
Best wishes, Pamela
I, of course, agree with you perfectly!